Fuck Cancer

So a couple weeks ago I had my 1.5 year followup for my basal cell carcinoma surgery (Mohs procedure). And I haven't said anything here or elsewhere because many of my friends who have also had cancer were announcing good news at the time and then each time I thought I should say something. So I stayed quiet because I didn't want to appear to be pooping on their good news.

In November I had a scab at the edge of my surgery site. It was small, but bleeding for no apparent reason is not a good sign. The site itself looked red, like I had been scratching at it (which I tried me best to not even rub my head). It appeared to look a little better as I left it alone, but the skin started to feel dry again.

At my appointment I let my dermatologist know all this. She was going to do a whole body scan anyway, but she agreed that it was a dry, red patch right on the edge of the incision site. So we had it frozen off. She said that it was probably a small sarcoma made up of squamous cells (which still doesn't make sense to me as sarcomas are connective tissue cancers, and squamous cells are the outer layer of skin). It's her belief that cryotherapy is all that was needed.

However this is how the last one started. And while I go to her because she is an expert in skin cancers, she didn't believe that I had cancer before until the lab report came back (or she was just trying to be positive and not say "cancer" to her patient without having labs to back it up).

In the end she said that usually she would have graduated me to a year between scans, but felt I should come back in 9 months. Or sooner if I notice something developing.

Thanks, Doc. No nervousness here because of that. Well, actually, I would rather she be honest with me than blow sunshine up my rear.

In any event while I should still be cancer free my personal medical history is arguing against it. We'll know if it comes back. The last time it took about 9 months before I started feeling a dry patch in the area we had frozen off (with a different doctor). It was another year before I could see a new doctor.

Fuck cancer.